Workday at vstech's
 

Yesterday I made the trip up to vstech's and we did some maintenance on my car. Actually this is my 16 yo son's dd, he really loves it.

We did the following:
- recharged and leak detected the a/c - no leaks except a very slightly leaking front seal on the compressor. Much nicer on the way home:)

- chemically cleaned the condensor and radiator, go rid of 30 years of bugs and debris

- flush and fill cooling with G05 and distilled water! PO had regular green stuff. not too bright, they thought the washer bottle was the recovery tank:eek:

- drained and refilled transmission (took a little extra, until we realized we forgot to secure the pan bolts...)

We did a thorough inspection under the car, I have quite a few places where rust is coming in. The evil battery tray cancer is apparent, got to pull the battery and RF fender and nip it in the bud.

Up next:
Rear cv boots cracking
Trans cooler hoses getting old
Rust repairs

Cosmetic things to do
- swap the oil/temp/fuel back to metric, somehow I have American gauges on a 83
- tach clock update
- vintage radio replacement, the modern radio is just wrong
- steam clean the carpets
- miscellaneous interior bits
- strip and refinish wood control panels

All in all a great day.

Pictures to follow, can't figure out how to post pictures from an iPad.

Here's the pictures
 

https://picasaweb.google.com/1021063...KGFxsqQxp30nQEhttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-_...255B1%255D.JPG


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--...255B1%255D.JPG

Interior needs a little work and TLC
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7...255B1%255D.JPG

engine gauges have been swapped, but the odometer looks to be original, or someone fixed the mileage to match the carfax history
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-U...255B1%255D.JPG

OM616 in all its glory
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-R...255B1%255D.JPG

Nice clean condensor and radiator, definitely helps the heat transfer :)
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-u...255B1%255D.JPG
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-L...255B1%255D.JPG

Can anyone here tell me if these seats are leather or tex?

Datacard shows code 154A (MB TEX JAVA) but this sure looks like leather. Dealer upgrade??

This is my first attempt to put up pictures, if there is a better way let me know. I am using my picasa account as a source.

Best tip I was given on the old is it MB TEX / leather problem is...

...to feel on the under side of the seat - leather is rough - well like, you know, leather!

They're tex, the leather ones don't turn a pink/palomino 2 tone.

Glad you enjoyed the work we did! GREAT car... ALL the rust is due to the battery tray, soo sad the PO neglected the battery... it's all pretty minor, so don't worry.

this car is an EXTREMELY well taken care of low mileage car, it must have been washed and garaged, and not driven much at ALL in the winter months... the car's from NY, and it's got .0000001 % rust in the underbody... nothing compared to NY rust belt driven cars. the ONLY rust in there is along the seam from water getting in via the battery tray hole... likely from sitting outside before you bought the car.

the only issue I have with the seats is, his datacard lists the seats as being Java... not palomino. does everybody agree the seats appear palomino?

when we pulled the cooler lines off the radiator, the stream of fluid looked quite dark, and it had a slight smell. so off to napa for a filter kit. (the cheapo gasket did not fit the pan right, so I reused the original one. it felt nice and soft. when I put the pan back on, I started all pan bolts, and torqued down the dipstick bolt, and the front bolts, and left the rear ones loose... apparently to flush the fluid out completely...:rolleyes: (3 quarts of fluid on my driveway... nice) aannnyway... torqued down the rear bolts, and cleaned off the pan with brake spray, and filled to 4 quarts, and then cranked it up did the d,r,d,r,d,r,d,r,d plan, and tested level, and topped off to a good fill.

test drive, the transmission shifted smooth as butter. Jay very happy with the improvements!

an interesting thing to note on his radiator... (I REALLY WISH I'd taken pictures...) he has a bher radiator, with plastic tanks, and aluminum VERTICAL TUBES... with stainless steel volutes in each tube.... the fins on the radiator were like an A/C coil... I'd NEVER seen one like that before... anybody else?

They were a couple decades ago. Now they are pinkomino.:D

I really wish we had the same MB following over here...To be able to meet up and service/work on each others cars.

There isn't anyone near me with much interest in older vintage cars net alone MB's.

It is just you guys in the forum (which I'm not sure what I'd do without, seriously. I wouldn't have the privilege of owning an MB I think) and my 2.5 year old son. He sits in the drivers seat turning the wheel making all the right noises and even has the dak dak down to a fine art sounding like a 617 whilst I'm under the car.

I think it is just layback40 here and myself here in Australia but Layback40 is at least some 600 miles from me.

I'd love to visit Sydney... and if I ever do, I'll look you up.

jay_bob, just wanted to say that the car looks great! One pretty clean looking engine bay!

That is a nice looking 240D, and low milage. I have the american fuel/oil/temp gauges in my 80 240 and 85 300D. they work great and when I look at it, I know in an instant what they mean. I think those gauges were used up to 79.

I found a couple old Becker Europa Cassett radios for both cars. those newer beckers have 1/2 the owners manual describing how to turn the radio on.:rolleyes: thes old ones, easy, just turn the knob. :D

I hope your 16 yo appreciates what a nice car this is. If I had a 16 yo, he would have to wait a loooooog time, maybe when he hit 40 or something before driving mine. ;)

Charlie

The car looks fantastic, I love the look of that color with dark window tint, I think it really makes the car look good and I'm sure helps keep the interior cooler to boot!

I have to ask, what was your process for cleaning the radiator and condensor? I have a feeling I need to do the same now that summer is approaching, lots of dusty open highway and bugs have probably sapped a few % of my system's capacity just in gunk. I've cleaned it with a little water in the past, but it doesn't look nearly as nice as yours.

the color on his car is not one I've seen before, it's not the typical Ivory, it's got a more vanilla hue. the car REALLY stands out!

In NM, I DEFINITELY recommend this treatment! and verify your aux fan works, and make sure you have good fresh charge of R12 like I put in his car!
My process for cleaning the two radiators, (a/c and Coolant) were first to pull the aux fan, and the right side bar, then drain the coolant, and disconnect the transmission cooler. I set the radiator next to a tree, and soaked it in a non acid coil cleaning bath, then sprayed the same chemical on the condenser. both foamed up nicely, and after it pushed all the dirt off the coils, I rinsed with a good solid amount of water. I then pulled the block drain, and flushed the cooling system with the hose, through the heater core, then I blew out the heater core with compressed air, and when the block stopped spitting water, I put the plug back in and flushed and back flushed the coolant passages of the radiator. reassembled everything and filled with a nice mix of Zerex G05 and distilled water.

A good days drive away !
I seldom get to Sydney.
Way too much traffic.
My cars would get claustrophobic in such a built up place!

THanks for the info, it's actually on my 95, the fans do work and it has factory 134a with working AC, but I do think a little cleaning of the radiator's exterior would give it some new life, I was amazed at the dust and just general junk clinging to the old fan clutch and fan that you can't really see from up top, there must have been a pound of road dust and bugs packed into just the clutch.:eek:

It sounds like I really should have done that before my coolant flush last month, I may wait until next spring, but we'll see how ambitious I feel in a few weeks when I have vacation. :)